F 869 
.L8 B2 
Copy 1 



Cen Vear$ 
lit « * 

Jlngek$ 



By . * • • • 

6C0W muroy ^ms 



Copyrighted. 1902. All rights reserved. 



Rl>^ 



"LOOKING BACKWARD." 

(COl'ISRIGHTED) 

1891 1901 

Population increased, past ten years 103.3% 

Banking, clearing-house, increased 291% 

Bank deposits, increased 228% 

Banking, capital increased, 23% 

Manufacturing, capitalincreased 72% , 

Manufacturing, value products increased 115% 

Postoffice receipts, increased 187% 

Building permits, increased 331% 

Cost of new buildings, increased. 235% 

Street railroad, miles increased 356% 

Water service connections, increased 139% 

Telephone subscribers, Los Angeles, inc 1,100% 

Petroleum produced, barrels, 1891 0. 

Petroleum, produced, Los Angeles, 1901, bar- 
rels 1,255,000 

Area of Los Angeles, increased 48.9% 

Assessed valuation of property, increased. ...42. 5% 

Proportion of debt to assessed valuation 4.7% 

Interest rate, city bonds, in 1891 5.5% 

Interest rate, city bonds, in 1901 3.85% 

Park area, increased 427% 

Park, cost maintenance, increased 1,423% 

Improved streets, length increased 123% 

Cost of street maintenance, increased 58% 

Sewers, increased in length 254% 

Fire department, maintenance increased I4l% 

Police department, maintenance increased. ..64.5% 

City lighting expense, increased 50% 

Birth rate, increased -. •62% 

School enrollment, increased 135% 

School teachers, increased 190% 

School maintenance, cost increased 156% 

Home use of library books, increased 306% 

Books added to Public Library, increased. ...168% 
Suburban lines from Los Angeles, 1891, 

miles 0. 

Suburban lines from Los Angeles, 1901, 

miles .; ...127 ' 

Suburban lines from Los Angeles, now build- 
ing, miles 540. 



ten Vears in £0$ Jfngeles 

COPYRIGHTBD 

Dear Friends in tlie East: — 

You have read so much about Southern Cali- 
fornia, its climate of Paradise, fruitage of Eden 
and heavenly glories of mountain, sky and sea, 
that I am going to break forth to you in market 
prose— in figures. I know that they are headaches 
to most people, and yet mine are full of romance 
to the unsentimental thinker. Milton said: — 

"tc know 
That which before us lies in daily life, 
Is the prime wisdom. What is more, is fume, 
Or emptiness, or fond impertinence; 
And renders us in things that mosi concern, 
Unpractic'd, unprepar'd, and still to seek." 

As our search for a home is ended, and we have 
decided to make this spot our abiding place, I 
have tried to find out what lies before us by pok- 
ing a little into the past. It has been a revela- 
tion. 

Would you have believed 
POPULATION, that during the past dec- 
ade, while the United States 
has rolled up an increase of 24.8% in population, 
and the State of California has added 39.7% to 
her numbers, that the County of Los Angeles has 
grown 67.8%, and that the City of the Angels- 
best known citv of its size in the Union — has in- 
creased in population 103.3% fS:;iSJJ?y ! Dur- 
ing the same period, San Francisco germed 15%. 
No other important city in the country made so 
great a growth as did Los Angeles. Sunshine did 
not do it all. Oil and gold mining helped the 
fruit and flowers, and the honest promoter came 
and hustled, while the welcome invalids and tour- 
ists wrote back for money to put into homes — be- 



cause they did not wish to go back East. This 
increase of permanent residents means that, in the 
eleven years since the census of '90, Los Angeles 
has added to her population a city larger than 
Bridgeport, Conn., or Springfield, Mass, or Troy, 
N. Y., or Oakland, Cal. It means that she has 
jumped from fifty-sixth to thirtj^-sixth place in the 
proud rank of chief American cities, and at the 
same ratio of growth will number 204,115 only 
five years hence. 

The growth of a city is like the natural increase 
of a private fortune. The first thousands come 
slowly, by great industry and economy. But 
when a certain point is gained, a momentum is 
acquired and all things run that way. It seems 
as though opportunities were created especially 
for the millionaire. Los Angeles has achieved a 
pace that draws all things to her. Today there 
are many more good reasons for expecting a great 
increase during the next ten years than there were 
at the beginning of the past decade. During four 
of the past ten years — '93 to '98 — the whole 
countrx' passed through the most awful business 
depression ever known, and the West suffered 
most. Today the sky is clear and the amount of 
money in circulation, per capita, has increased 
14.8% since 1892. 

I cannot hope to rep- 
CITY'S WEALTH. ^^^sent to you the 
physical growth of 
Los Angeles as faithfully as the camera shows 
you the palm trees and orange groves. But I will 
endeavor to make my pencil tell the truth about 
tlimgs as honestly as does the photo film. Briefly, 
the city has increased 48.9% in area during the 
last decade, and now comprises 27,697 acres. The 
value of property, as assessed under the tax levy, 
has increased 42.5% [Si-ifSSl during that 
period, and the tax rate is only ^1.25 per $100, 



The assessed value of real estate is about one-half 
of its market value. 

The perfect solvency of the 
CITY'S DEBT. city isestablished in the fact 
that her total debt of$3,- 
289,925 is but 4.7% of the assessed valuation, 
and is but $27.41 per capita, while that of Rich- 
mond, Ya., is $72 per capita; New Haven, Conn., 
$30; Syracuse, N. Y., $43; Allegheny, Pa., and 
Worcester, Mass., $36. The city owns property 
worth $10,220,226.83, and therefore, if forced to 
liquidate, couid pay three dollars for every one 
she owes. Ten years ago Los Angeles had to pay 
^V2% interest annually upon her outstanding 
bonds. Today she pays 3.85%. By State statute, 
the debt of cities is limited to 15% of their assessed 
valuations. And, except for purposes of payment 
of interest upon its debt and for the payment 
of previous bonded debt, the charter of Los An- 
geles limits the tax rate to $1.00 per $100 of 
valuation for all municipal purposes, 

A city's heart beats through its 
BANKLING* banks. Continuous, substan- 
tial, rapid growth — and noth- 
ing else— is told in the story of the banks. The 
clearing house sheet shows a gain of 291 % in the 
past decade <.rjoi.... 145,1:0,809; • I" spite of several 
liquidations and reorganizations, there has been a 
gain of 23% in the total banking capital (S;!!! 
I^siloij). The prosperity of the whole people is 
revealed in the tremendous increase in their dc- 
posits in bank-a gain of 228% (Sh^^SKlD- 
Thrift, industry, confidence, are epitomized in 
those figures. 

The increase for ten years 

SAWING "WOOD, in the number of building 

permits issued has been 

332% [i9oi!!'.'.2,'826] . and the cost of construction 

of new buildings has increased 233% (SL^l'Se'on)- 



The area of part prop- 
PLAYGROUNDS* ^-^y ^^wncd by tl^e city 
has increased 427% 
(SI;: VJS '"''"''"] , and the annual charge ior park 
maintenance has increased 1,423% [S:;:;*67;8T2] • 
The sign, "Keep Off the Grass" is not found in 
any Los Angeles park. Visitors enjoy perfect 
freedom. 

There has been a gain of 123% 
STT^ F.F T.S. in the length of paved and im- 
proved streets [|S;;;;S5™:^) . 
The annual expense for street maintenance — pav- 
ing, grading, sweeping, sprinkling — now costs 
58 % more than it did ten years ago (S-;;;*|g;gJ) . 
The city has laid, to date, more than 300 miles of 
neat cement and stone sidewalk. 

Of that most essential health 
SEWERS* guardian, sewers, there was a 
gain of 254% in length built 
(Sl:::iii3 "'-''')• As the main sewer outfall is 
into the Pacific ocean, twenty miles away, by 
gravity discharge, the city's drainage is ideal. 
Plans are already prepared for other trunk sewers 
to the ocean, to accommodate a population of 
500,000. 

The cost of maintain- 
FIRE AND POLICE* ing the splendid, mod- 
ern, paid fire depart- 
ment was 141% greater in the year just closed 
than for 1891 (Slili^foicS] ; but the police depart- 
ment cost only 64>< % more than it did ten years i 
ago [I^Joi" "^ir;oo<!] • I"^ numerical strength thd 
force increased 37% [SI" "iJia] , and is evidently in-i 
adequate, or else the city is remarkably free fromi 
crime. There are, in Los Angeles, 1,165 inhabit- 
ants to each member of the police force, while in 
San Francisco the number is 734 to each officer, 
in New York, 373; Chicago, 594; Boston, 496 and 
St. Louis, 664. 



Heretofore, Los An- 
WATER SUPPLY* geles has been supplied 
with most excellent 
water by private corporations, but nep;otiations 
are being concluded by which the city will acquire 
ownership of the whole system. The rapid, per- 
manent growth of the city is again reflected in 
the fact that the number of water service connec- 
tions has increased 139% during the past decade 
(i90i "'25"266)- ^^ may be said that for domestic 
uses— not irrigation — the cost of water for a five- 
room dwelling house averages $1.50 a month. 

Receipts of the postoffice are 
POSTOFFICE, one of the safest indicators of 
acity's growth, and in Los An- 
geles they show a gain of 187% {Shy/.^SSl • 
For some fool reason the postoffice is not located 
conveniently near the business centre of the city. 

The city's own bill for gas and elcc- 
LIGHTS* trie lighting increased only 50% dur- 
ing the decade (S:;::^S;S?j- The 

city is brilliantly lighted every night. 

Only the guardian angels of lit- 
SCHOOLS* tie children keep record of the 

good work done in the Los Ange- 
les public schools. The schools are most excel- 
lent, progressive, a^d modern. The number of 
school buildings now required shows an increase 
of 56% (}^};;;;6'i] ; of pupils enrolled, a gain of 
136% (.l931"-2i'64sl ' of teachers employed, a gain 
of 190% ri89i.!..i8n ; of annual cost of mainten- 
ance,, an increase' of 156% [J^j^l/.-.-.^^lci^fs] . The 
value of school property has increased 77.8% 
(i90i"'"'*i lii?") • -^PP^y^^S *^^ "^^* usually taken, 
in ascertaining a city's population, that of 5V^ 
times the school enrollment, the permanent resi- 
dents of Los Angeles in 1901 were 11 9,06 4-. The 
private schools are many and of high character. 



A public library is an 
BOOK LOVERS, indicator of culture, 
and the use made of 
good books surely registers the standard of 
intelligence of a community. In proof that the 
cream of Anglo-Saxon people live in Los An- 
geles, and form a majority of the inhabitants, 
it is shown that the average number of books cir- 
culated here for each inhabitant, in 1901, was 5.3, 
as against 1.61 in Boston; 0.47 in San Francisco. 
0.9 for Chicago. And during the past ten years 
the membership of the library has increased 121% 
[;gj;;- J; ■;■;§). There were added to the shelves 
new books making the total number 16S% great- 
er now than ten years ago [ |1^| ' " " '^r'Mi j • '^'^at 
great Pittsburgh ironmaster and philanthropist 
had no hand in this. Books drawn for home use 
showed the surprising increase of 306% (SI::S';n43) • 
It costs the Los Angeles public library onlv $.041 a 
volume to circulate its books, but in Boston it 
costs $.127 pervolume; San Francisco, $.133, and 
Chicago, $.074. A new public library building is 
greatly needed in Los Angeles. 

Only four years ago Los An- 
PETROLEUM, gele's probably had the most 

unpromising future as a 
manufacturing city of any place in the Union. 
Coal cost $7.50 a ton, wood $7 a cord, and the 
people, conscious that they had received every 
other thing that heart could wish, were disposed 
to be content. Then oil was found within the 
city limits, and today there are more than 1,000 
wells within the city lines,^ each yielding daily 
from five to twenty-five barrels of oil. The result 
is that, at present price of oil, manufacturers can 
obtain the best — smokeless, ashless, dustless — fuel, 
at a rate equal to $1.80 a ton for coal, making 
the fuel item less than in any other city in the 
world. Being the emporium of Southern Califor- 



nia, Los Angeles Is benefited by all oil develop- 
ments in the twenty-two distinct oil districts of 
this region, in which there are 2,040 operating 
wells, and 500 new wells now being drilled. The 
gold mining industry succeeding the '49 discov- 
ery did not equal in intensity the oil development 
since 1897. It is estimated that the amount 
of capital already invested in oil properties and 
means of production exceeds $200,000,000. 
Though the production in 1900 was 4,000,000 bar- 
rels; in 1901 was 8,742,500 barrels, the yield for 
the present year is expected to exceed 10,000,000 
barrels. The Santa Fe Railroad has demonstrat- 
ed that oil is a saving to them of 40% in cost of 
locomotive fuel, and they now consume at the rate 
of 3,000,000 barrels a year. There already are 
twelve refineries in the State, and the Standard 
Oil Co., at an expense of several millions, is build- 
ing a refining plant to occupy 70 acres of land. 
Other new refineries are buildingelsewhere, and as 
soon as the transportation problem is equitab'3' 
ac^justed, the oil development will exceed even the 
past record. 

Tn spite of the handi- 
MANUFACTURING* cap of expensive 

fuel ten years ago, 
there were in Los Angeles in 1890 (Federal Cen- 
sus), 750 manufacturing establishments, employ- 
ing $6,811,488 capital— not including the value of 
rented property used. The manufacturing sta- 
tistics of the 1900 census are not published at this 
writing (Jan. 26th, 1902). With ail the European 
nations scrambling for the Asiatic markets for 
their manufactured products; with the possession, 
in the vicinity of Los Angeles, of most of the raw 
materials entering into production, with a bright 
prospect of including in that number cotton from 
the recently reclaimed Colorado River delta; with 
a deep-water harbor now being constructed at 



her ocean port, San Pedro, and island stations, 
belonging to the United States, dotting the route 
all the way to the Orient, it requires very little 
optimism to prophesy that those markets — nearer 
California than to any other country — will con- 
trol Oriental trade in exactly the proportion to 
which Los Angeles develops her manufacturing 
business. Her petroleum will supply fuel to the 
growing Pacific steamer fleet, as well as to the 
railroads of the coast and of the whole Southwest. 
The new isthmian canal will cheapen freight to 
New York and Europe upon oranges and all fruit 
and other products of the Los Angeles district- - 
Southern California— and thus stimulate the pro- 
duction of all horticultural and agricultural crops. 
It may sound paradoxical to state 
MINING* that gold mining in Southern Cali- 
fornia is in its infancy, j^et nev- 
ertheless this is true. The Northern part of the 
State has always been the mining section. Within 
the past few years, notably at Randsburg, on the 
north i-im of the Mojave Desert, mining camps 
have been established that are already of world- 
wide fame. Within 100 miles of Los Angeles are 
new gold mines, yielding ore running from $25 to 
$50 a ton in value and in paying quantities. Los 
Angeles is the center for much of the Arizona min- 
ing business, also for the State of Sonora, Mexico, 
and for the Southern part of Nevada. The gold, sil- 
ver and copper production of Southern California 
last year is estimated at $12,000,000. Los An- 
geles is not only the financial center of all this 
activity, but is also the base of supply for these 
rapidly growing mining camps. There is not a 
plant in Los Angeles engaged in the manufacture 
of mining machinery and oil-well supplies but has 
doubled its capacity during the last two years. 
The now famous Chloride and Gold Road camj s, 
near Kingman, Ariz., are Los Angeles enterprises. 



Eastern farmers who read 
IRRIGATION* *^^^^ newspapers now un- 
derstand that irrigation in 
Los Angeles County and Southern California is 
not a poor substitute for rain, and that depend- 
ence upon rain subjects farming to the law of 
chance. If manufacturing or merchandizing de- 
pended upon similar uncertainties, who would 
dare to engage in those businesses? And they are 
learning that the arid land of the Southwest is 
not sterile, as the name "desert" implies, but that, 
instead, the scarcity of rainfall has made this soil 
richer. The only sterile lands are those in the 
East having rainfall enough to leach out the 
nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid, and that 
keep the mortgage on the farm in keeping up 
the supply of manufactured fertilizer. There is 
plenty of land in Southern California still waiting 
cultivation, where water can be obtained in suffi- 
cient quantities, and where— more nearly than 
any where else — a maximum yield from a minimum 
expenditure of labor will reward the man behind 
the hoe. 

There is no 

ORCHARD and FARM. place in the 

United States 
where so large a volume of high-priced products 
may be taken from the ground, acre for acre, as in 
Los Angeles County, which contains the largest 
body of fertile land of any county in Southern 
California. It is about the size of Connecticut; 
has the most thorough system of irrigation and 
the greatest development of water, of any south- 
ern county. Not only does the water for irriga- 
tion come from the mountains, but upon its way 
to the yalleys it drives several large electric pow^er 
plants, and to considerable extent the city of Los 
Angeles aud all its suburban tov»ms are sup- 
plied with cheap electric energy from this nevei^ 



failing water. There is no complaint because 
the water labors overtime and does two kinds 
*of work. The Pacific ocean shore of Los An- 
geles County is eighty miles long, and within 
the boundaries of the county — by reason of moun- 
tain, plain, and valley altitudes — are found every 
kind of climate included in the meaning of temper- 
ate and sub-tropical. And soils as varied as the 
climate are there, and thus all crops of the North 
and South are grown. It is not uncommon for an 
acre of oranges to yield a net profit of $300 to 
$500 a year, and the oranges shipped out of 
Southern California last year would have made a 
train of cars 160 miles long. They brought to the 
growers $6,500,000. The largest winery in the 
w^orld is in Los Angeles county. Startling stories 
of other crops could be given, if useful here— tales 
of lemons, limes, citrons, pomegranates, grape 
fruit, figs, guavas, olives, peaches, apricots, pears, 
plums, prunes, and of English walnuts, almonds, 
peanuts, alfalfa and beans. Special occupations 
are, the breeding of ostriches for their plumes, of 
Belgian hares, fancy and domestic poultrj^, and 
bee culture. The honey crop of California, last 
year, made 220 carloads. In Orange County, 
adjoining Los Angeles, a peat bed has been 
drained and from it are now shipped out 1,500 
car loads annually of the finest celery eyer grown. 
It is impossible, in this small space, to give 
even an outline of the plot of the story of the 
orchards and farms which pay daily tribute to the 
city of Los Angeles, but which are writing their 
chapters in brick and mortar within the city 
walls. The Los Angtles Chamber of Com- 
merce estimates that the total wealth produced 
from the land in the seven counties of Southern 
California, last year, exclusive of minerals, ap- 
proximated $38,324,000. 



There was a 

BIRTHS AND DEATHS, gain of 62% 

in the birth- 
rate [ly()i".;."i(joGj\ The death rate last year was 
16.06 for each 1,000 inhabitants, but it should be 
remembered that 18% of all deaths were from 
pulmonary consumption — mostly of people sent 
here by Eastern doctors as a last hope, which of 
itself is the very highest testimonial possible to 
give regarding this citj^'s beneficent and desirable 
climate. In Massachusetts, consumption repre- 
sents 29% of the total deaths; in Maine, 27%; in 
Michigan, 24%, and in New York state, 20%. 

One of the best proofs 
HELLO! CENTRAL! that the phenomen- 
ally rapid increase in 
population of Los Angeles is of a permanent 
character is the increase in number of telephones 
used. Tourists and transient visitors do not sub- 
scribe for telephone service. In the past ten years 
there has been a gain in the number of city sub- 
scribers of 1,100% ({g;::::iVSj The daily num- 
ber of messages now averages 125,000, or one 
complete local switch for every inhabitant — a 
larger proportionate use than in any other city in 
America. Today one can telephone to any large 
town in Nevada, Washington, Oregon or Cali- 
fornia. Ten years ago, only the chief places in 
Southern California, not including San Diego, were 
connected with Los Angeles by long-distance 
phone. 

The best managed Chamber of 
PUBLICITY. Commerce of any city of its 

size m the world is maintained 
in Los Angeles, in connection with a large, perma- 
nent exposition of all the products of Southern 
California. From this institution are annually 
distributed tons of descriptive literature, compiled 
with care and accuracy, and beautifully illustrated. 



Next to the petroleum 
^'FARES, PLEASED' industry, in intensity 
of development, has 
been the construction of urban, suburban and in- 
ter-urban electric and steam railroads. Ten years 
ago there were, in Los Angeles, but 6 miles of 
electric road, 17 miles of horse-car lines, and 14i/^ 
miles of cable road, within the city limits. Today 
there are 170 miles of most modernly equipped 
electric trolley road— a gain of 356% (S:;^?' | , 
The number of cars in use and frequency and effi- 
ciency of service have increased proportionately. 
Better yet, the Huntington-Hellman syndicate 
(H. E. Huntington, long time vice-president of the 
Southern Pacific Company, and heir of C. P. 
Huntington), are at this moment engaged in 
building 500 miles of inter-urban lines, to connect 
Los Angeles with nearly every hamlet in Southern 
California. In the wake of this road-building will 
follow such industrial, agricultural and horticul- 
tural development as never before were seen even 
in this land of sunshine and quick growth. These 
lines will carry freight, and will pass through 
field, orchard, farm and oil lands. Besides the 
Huntington enterprise, other roads are planned 
by substantial men. Rapid transit means the an- 
nihilation of space. The points already brought 
into the suburbs of Los Angeles, by rapid transit, 
include Pasadena, Altadena and Mount Lowe; 
Santa Monica, Ocean Park, Palms, Sherman and 
Hollywood; Redondo, Wiseburn, Inglewood, 
Hyde Park and Gardena; Wilmington, Long 
Beach, San Pedro, Terminal Island, Downey, Ana- 
heim, Orange, Santa Ana, Alhambra, Whittier 
and scores of new villa-park hamlets. Ten years 
ago there were no suburban rapid-transit, lines 
whatever, running out from the city. 

Just as the great 
NEW TRUNK LINES. Huntington for- 

tune is now devot- 
ee} to building a gridiron oi inter-urban trackage, 



feacliiii^ out from Los Angeles in every directioti 
so the great fortune and aggressiveness of the 
copper king, Senator W. A. Clark, is now building 
a trunk line, 750 miles in length, from Salt Lake, 
Utah, to and through Los Angeles to her seaport 
suburb— San Pedro. The standard equipments of 
the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road are being duplicated — steel bridges, continu- 
ous-jointed 75-pound steel rails, rock ballast and 
stone culverts. No other trunk line through vir- 
gin regions was ever so well built. It will cost 
$25,000,000, and will open up to Los Angeles a 
vaster mining country than that now tributary 
to Denver. 

The 7,108V2 miles of the 
RAILROADS. Santa Fe system from Chi- 
cago, and the 7,4:'17 miles 
of the Southern Pacific from New Orleans and 
San Francisco now pay increasing tribute to 
Los Angeles. The steam roads centering in Los 
Angeles operate more than 200 trains daily. The 
electric and inter-urban roads, handle nearly 500 
cars a day. These roads employ about 7,500 
men; pay about $300,000 a month in wages, and 
new local work now under way, not including 
Senator Clark's line, will cause an expenditure of 
about $5,000,000 in and close to Los Angeles and 
will continue for five years. 

There is more misinformation in 
CLIMATE, the East regarding the climate of 

Los Angeles and Southern Califor- 
nia than about any other subject mentioned in 
these pages. People seem to think that if it is 
warm enough for roses to bloom in January, in 
Los Angeles, it must be hot enough to broil steak 
on the paving stones in July! It is hard to make 
clear the fact that the winter months East are the 
spring months here; that the snow season is rep- 
resented by a rainy season, and even then it only 
rains occasionally, with bright days in between. 



The thermometer, in Los Angeles, has only gone 
below the freezing point six times in the past ten 
years. It goes above 100° occasionally, in sum- 
mer, but because of the small percentage of hu- 
midity in the air the day is not at all oppressive. 
The rainfall in Los Angeles averages 17 inches an- 
nually. Thunderstorms are rare, and cyclones 
are unknown. At the beach (Santa Monica) 
bathing is delightful in January, in water of 61°. 
At Newport, R. I., it would be 32°. One can 
spend more days of the year, in comfort, in the 
open air in Southern California, than anywhere 
else in the United States. It is safe to say that 
the possession of this one advantage brought 
three-fourths of the people now living in this 
region and draws an increasing host of tourists 
every winter. There are no sudden extremes of tem- 
perature, as in the North,, Aged, delicate, luxury- 
loving, and Nature-loving people are finding this 
fact out. The number of persons who aspire to 
own homes in this region increases as these facts 
become known. It is a modern Arcadia, indeed. 

The worst possible thing 
REAL ESTATE. that could happen in Los 

Angeles would be a real 
estate boom. Some investigator has discovered 
that when a city doubles in population it quad- 
ruples in real estate values. This certainly is not 
true in Los Angeles. Obviously, a great increase 
in land values did accompany the gains in other 
directions, but in less proportion. Though the 
population of Los Angeles has doubled in the last 
decade, the assessed valuation has increased less 
than 43%, which means that, at present, no city 
offers a better field for the conservative investor. 
Many fortunes will be made, during the next dec- 
ade, from the appreciation of land values in Los 
Angeles. Forces heretofore unequalled are today 
at work creating permanent land values in and 
near Los Angeles. 



Lincoln said that if he 
COST OF LIVING. always could know 
what the plain people 
wanted he always would know what God wanted 
—because He had made so many of them! To 
maliC this story valuable I must tell what the 
plain people in Los An.e;eles pay for the necessities 
of life. Frame dwellings rent for about $5 per 
room a month— that is, a house containing six 
full-size rooms, on an improved street, with water 
and gas connections, rents for about $30 a month. 
The tenant generally pays for gas used; the owner 
paying the water rates. Illuminating gas costs 
$1 a thousand feet, and is very largely used for 
cooking. The winter's coal bill, so large an item 
in the family expenses. East, is almost entirely 
saved here in this mild climate, as is also the cost 
of heavy winter clothing. Fresh and canned 
fruits and vegetables— supplied throughout the 
winter months, as well as in summer— cost from 
20% to 25% less than in the East. Shelf groceries, 
teas, cereals, fresh eggs, and— strangely— dried 
fruits cost practically the same as in cities of the 
Atlantic and middle West. Meats- fresh and 
cured, and lard, cost from 2 to 3 cents a pound 
higher in Los Angeles than in the East, and coffee 
and butter, about 5 cents higher. , 

Los Angeles is a clean, 
IN GENERAL. bright city, sought by thou- 
sands of the leisure class be- 
cause of its irresistible attractiveness. The poll 
list shows that seven out of every eight voters 
were born outside of California, and five out of 
six came here since 1885. Newcomers, therefore, 
find themselves receiving cordial welcome aU 
around, without familiarity, because all were 
newly arrived yesterday. Vigor and enterprise 
are in the eye of ever3''one you meet upon the street, 
and a room-for-all spirit animates the business 



men. Ithe corner loafer, rowdy, loud sport, arid 
hobo are in the minority. 

Social life in Los Angeles is most delij^htful. 
The best theatrical attractions yisit the town, and 
the natural beauties of the City of the Angels — 
climate, mountains, ocean, flora, sky, and ecstasy 
of living— have attracted hosts of finely organized 
men and women, devoted to music, painting, liter- 
ature, and the gentle arts of doing and being — 
good. The church-life of Los Angeles permeates 
the home-life of the whole people, and is free from 
that chilling exclusiveness which characterizes 
many older Eastern cities. The daily newspapers 
are ably edited, and in their enterprise are truly 
metropolitan. The hotels, compelled to cater to 
people of wealth, are equal to any in the land, in 
tasteful appointments and capable managemert. 

Looking out from their positions in this dis- 
tributing centre, the merchants and bankers of 
Los Angeles do not overlook the fact that not 
only their own but America'sgreatest undeveloped 
commercial opportunities are in the Pacific and 
the lands beyond. The foreign trade of China is 
already $250,000,000. The men who will control 
America's Oriental trade, a short generation 
hence, will live in Los Angeles. 

And thy great future ! O it is to me. 
Like some enchanted vision that doth hold 
My fancy captive; like some epic told 
By bard divinest while we wonderingly 
List to the marvels that he doth nnfold, 
And the air stirs delightfully and thrills 
With conscions gladness as each echo fills 
Our list'ning fancy's ear. 
Oh, it is near, so near. 
The wondrous Future of this land of ours. 
And empire- shod, and promise-crowned I see, 
No shadow darken its grand destiny. 

—Eliza A. Otis 



The writer is prepared to verify any of the 
statements made in this pamphlet, or to give any 
other information desired regarding Los Angeles 
<ind Southern California. 

George Milroy Bailey. 



Causes of Los Angeles* Growth 

WEALTH IN THE UND 

Principal Products of Seven Southernmost Counties, 

1901, all of which Pay Tribute to the 

City of the Angels. 

Citrus Fruits sell annually for $10,000,000 

Gold and Silver 6,300,000 

Petroleum, estimated 7,850,000 

Borax 1,214,000 

Hay 3,000,000 

Vegetables and Fruit consumed.... 2,000,000 

Dried Fruits and Raisins sell for.. 2,000,000 

Grain 3,000,000 

Canned Goods 1,500,000 

Sugar 3,350.000 

*Fertilizers 550,000 

Hogs, Cattle and Sheep 2,328,000 

Nuts.,..-, 1,155,000 

Cement, Clay and Brick 350,000 

*Wine 800,000 

Beer 650,000 

Btitter 650,000 

Beans 3,500,000 

Asphaltum 501,000 

Eggs 500,000 

Celery 225,000 

Poultry 300,000 

Hides 250,000 

*Fresh Fish 275,000 

^Canned Fish 125,000 

Wool ., ■ 150,000 

Vegetables, exported 340,000 

Cheese 150,000 

Olives 200,000 

Salt, MineralWater, Lead, Coal,etc. 457,000 

Honey 275,000 

Lime, Granite, Marble, Sandstone 300,000 

Total $54,445,000 

^Approximate, as estimated by the I/OS Angeles 
Chamber of Commerce. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



017 168 806 1 g 



